


Can't Say They're Too Young

by sungabraverday



Series: Little Poplin Paylor, President of Panem [4]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: District 8, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-30
Updated: 2013-01-30
Packaged: 2017-11-27 13:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sungabraverday/pseuds/sungabraverday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poplin faces the personal challenge of letting her brothers make up their own mind, while the rebel leadership faces a crisis of it's own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Say They're Too Young

Poplin didn't want Eddie or Ray to join the rebel movement. It was purely selfish, of course. She didn't want them to get hurt, even though she herself ran that risk every single day. She had accepted that she had no say over what her parents chose to do, though she wished that they hadn't been in the movement either. But Eddie and Ray were her little brothers, and she was supposed to protect them. While Eddie was nineteen and she could almost understand that he could do what he liked, Rayon was fourteen, and no, no way, none at all, would she let him do this.

The problem was that at fourteen she had already been working on getting into the Capitol's good books with every single word so that she could work from within the supervisorial class. And that was after she had been part of the movement for two years.

She had tried to tell herself that it was different for her. She had been reaped into the Hunger Games, and only the fact that Rita Wheaver had hated her own life had saved Poplin's. She was living on borrowed time since then. She could put her life on the line, because it already had been. Even if she died, she would still have lived longer than she would have without Rita's decision. Eddie and Ray didn't have that. But she knew that she could try to justify it however she liked, but she couldn't tell them no without feeling hideously, awfully guilty. 

The group leader's next gathering was in Vere's bedroom, in the house that he shared with no one but the ghosts of his dead wife and the child who had never had his first breath. He was one of the brightest minds in the district, and set on bringing it down because it had cost him the woman he loved. He was a supervisor in one of the sewing factories, and he was a massive asset to their movement. His home provided the perfect cover, because they all visited him regularly enough, so it was purely coincidental if, say, several people chose the same day to stop by.

Tuck and Tatting, the recognized ultimate leaders, sat on chairs that they had pulled in from the kitchen. They sat along one side of the bed, with Woof and Pin in chairs across from them. Chord sat at the end of the bed, with a space beside him where Vere could sit if he wasn't moving around as if everything was perfectly normal. Brea, Sara, and Poplin crowded together at the head of the bed, Sara cross-legged between the other two. They all bent around the middle, voices low. 

They started with their usual discussions of events in other Districts, or what little they knew. Woof, Weave, and Cecelia had between them reached a Victor from each District for some typical small talk. That was enough to know that no one had been cut off from contact because of their district's rebellion. Things were uneasy, because they were never anything else, but that was all. The only exception was Twelve, but Haymitch Abernathy was the only Victor there, and he had long ago pulled his phone right out of the wall. There was no point in worrying about them. 

There was nothing new from the factories, and from the supervisors' perspectives, everything was as smooth as ever. 

When meetings were so infrequent, they tended to draw them out. They had covered everything usual, and heated discussion in hushed whispers had provided just basic ideas for possible concrete action. Brea needed to see if there was a basement room in her warehouse, and what was stored there, but that was all they had so far. 

The last order of business was always new members. It was Chord who brought it up, finally bringing the meeting towards its end. "The other day, maybe a week ago, a girl came up to me in the shopping area and asked if she could help me. When we were in a secluded corner she told me that she wanted to join the cause. Her name has to still be in the Reaping Bowl, that's how young she was. Said her name was Plait."

Sara inhaled sharply, and Brea and Poplin looked at her. "It's my sister," she said. "She's asked me before - Mayer has too - but I guess she wasn't getting an answer fast enough from me, and certainly not one she liked."

Tuck looked guiltily at Poplin beside him. "Eddie and Ray have been asking me the same, Poplin. I don't know if you know."

"I know," she said, voice soft. "They've been asking me too."

Pin eyed Poplin and Tuck sceptically, frowning. "Ray's only fourteen. And isn't Plait not much older?"

"She's seventeen," Sara answered absently, focusing hard on her hands. Her knuckles were going white and red with the pressure of squeezing them tight, sibling worry exuding from every pore.

"Eddie and Mayer? How old are they?" Vere had returned from the kitchen with a mug of hot water. It was their cue to wrap it up to give him the chance to sleep before his shift early the next day. 

"Nineteen," Poplin and Sara replied simultaneously. 

Tatting processed it all. "Eddie and Mayer are both welcome to join us," he said, tone brokering no argument. "Your families have been very involved, and I'm sure they'll be an asset. Nineteen years is plenty old enough to be making their own decisions, no matter how much you may wish otherwise." It was the inevitable response, but Poplin knew that Sara would still be biting her tongue to keep from pointing out that 'very involved' had lost them their mother, in addition to their brother lost to the Games. Even though she was essential in fighting the regime, and despised it with every fibre of her being, Sara hated the rebellion too. They both had cost her, and she would not rest until neither existed.

He paused and delivered the rest of his verdict. "Plait can join too. She's been through a lot, and she is old enough to make her choice, and she knows the risks. Ray, on the other hand, has admirable enthusiasm, but he's just too young to be risking himself like this."

Poplin took a deep breath, and let the words spill out before she locked them up again. "Let Ray join."

There was silence for a moment. No one had expected it, least of all from her. Chord looked at her oddly from across the bed. "He's fourteen, Poplin."

"I know," she answered. "I don't want him to. But he wants to. And I was twelve."

Woof looked at her, and slowly nodded. "She's right," he said. "He's old enough to be Reaped; he's old enough to fight."

Poplin knew then that Ray would be allowed to join. When a Victor said something, it carried weight. It didn't stop the silence from fillinf the room again for a full minute. Finally, Vere spoke. "You need to work this out fast and go. It's getting late."

Tuck nodded, and seized control. "Let's vote on it, then. If you think Ray should be allowed to join, put one hand in the middle. If you don't, then don't." It was a simple declaration, and his hand was the first on the centre of the bed. 

Poplin's followed, not seconds later. Brea's went in, and Woof's and Vere's. Sara's hands stayed firmly clasped, and Tatting, Pin, and Chord made no move either. There was a pause. 

Tuck spoke again, and this time something was different. "That's five. There are nine of us. Ray can join." He didn't look to Tatting for confirmation. This had stopped being just about Ray's age, and started being about who the real leader was. With that simple vote, Tuck had beat Tatting. Uncertainty crackled in a way it hadn't for years, but there was more life to it too. It seemed like things might change.

There was no time to process it, though, before Vere adjourned the meeting. "Anything else? No? Then hurry up, I need to sleep." They filtered back out into the night in pairs, leaving no trace of the meeting behind.


End file.
